New fires erupt in Panhandle; evacuation ordered in small town

Published 7:00 pm, Wednesday, April 5, 2006

Numerous wildfires erupted in the parched, windy Texas Panhandle on Thursday, prompting a mandatory evacuation of one town and threatening homes in another.

Officials in Lefors in Gray County ordered a mandatory evacuation of the town of about 500, Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Wayne Beighle said. Residents were taken to a shelter in Pampa, he said.

Officials closed several roads because high winds were blowing dust and smoke. Winds also are blowing dust and ash left from previous fires, reducing visibility below a quarter of a mile in some spots, said Matthew Kramar, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Amarillo.

Fires last month burned nearly a million acres in the Panhandle.

The threatened homes were north of Pampa in Gray County, Beighle said.

The largest fire was east of U.S. 287 near the Potter-Moore county line. The blaze started in the early afternoon and scorched about 1,000 acres within 90 minutes. A fire near Vega charred about 650 acres, and two fires burned near Pampa _ one northwest of the city and another about 10 miles south of it.

Estimates on burned acreage were difficult because it was too windy for some planes to get into the air, Texas Forest Service spokeswoman Traci Weaver said.

Two large air tankers were on their way from New Mexico to drop retardant on fires that pose the greatest threat, Beighle said.

Meteorologists spotted a few showers, but conditions are so dry that rain evaporates before reaching the ground, Kramar said.

Roads shut down in one or both directions were U.S. 87 north of Amarillo; Texas 152 between Borger and Skellytown; Texas 273 between Lefors and McLean; Texas 749 near Lefors; Farm Road 282 northwest of Pampa; and Farm Road 2375 near Lefors.

Farther south, two other fires burned. Weaver said firefighters are battling a blaze in Howard County near Big Spring and one near the Crane-Upton county line.